Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution coming to new-gen consoles and handhelds

Take-Two has announced that strategic mastermind Sid Meier intends to embrace the playthings of our fairly uncivilized age and build Civilization Revolution, the designer's first "next generation" game. Scheduled for a Spring 2008 release on modern consoles and handheld platforms, the strategy game promises to build the widely appreciated Civilization gameplay "from the ground up" for consoles. According to the press release, that means "an all new accessible, visually immersive, and action-packed world" with a "streamlined time scale for quicker games, intense combat, and constant action." Yes, we checked twice to make sure we were reading the correct document.

It's also the game Sid Meier's always wanted to make, you know. "Civilization Revolution is the game I've always wanted to make!" he says. "We are excited to take advantage of the power of next generation consoles and the ingenuity of handhelds, to create a great and unique strategy game for newcomers to the series, as well as the millions of fans around the world who enjoy Civilization on the PC." Since the PC's Civilization almost seems like the shushing librarian compared to console gaming's heavily armed macho man, this "Revolution" faces quite a challenge in getting the two to shake hands and appeal to both sets of gamers. Mr. Meier had best prepare himself for an initial torrent of "it's being dumbed down" accusations.

You might choose to save those for your fellow player, as Civilization Revolution will support online multiplayer matches along with integrated video and voice chat. We can't wait to don togas and wave our scepters about as we crush the feeble armies of General H@xinat0rr 3K.

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution

Reader Comments (16)

As a Civ follower from the beginning, this game will be a launch purchase. DS touchscreen Civ possibly?

great news. Ternbased strategy will work much better on console than real-time.

Also, Civilization is unlimited value.

He better have something ingenious in mind to get over the mouse hurdle on the consoles. Civ is a mouse click heavy game and doesn't immediately lend itself well to a console control stick (though the wii-mote might be nearly as good.)

@ 3

I agree that will probably one of the biggest things to conquer. This may be another one of those very few multi-platform games that actually may be better (control wise) for the Wii. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

In any case I'm looking forward to this. It's been awhile since I jumped out of PC gaming. (I just got tired of always upgrading.) I've always loved the Civ games back in the day.

"an all new accessible, visually immersive, and action-packed world" with a "streamlined time scale for quicker games, intense combat, and constant action."

Huh. If I were a console player, I'd feel insulted.

I dunno, I never got into the mouse clicking. I think Civ could EASILY be done without a mouse (a la Civ1) with just much better graphics. I'd pay for that for sure. I

"streamlined time scale for quicker games, intense combat, and constant action."

Yes, because we all know that the game Sid Meier 'always wanted to make' was a first-person shooter.

I love my console, and I REALLY love Civilization, but these are not two great tastes that go great together.

Why does the comment thing cut off my comments frequently?

To finish, I do

Hunh. I was heavily considering getting Civilization IV and the two expansions once Beyond the Sword came out. I might have to wait and see how these console versions turn out now.

or, you know, he could just port Civ 2 to the DS and not piss off a whole bunch of people...

I hated Civ2. Port Civ1 or Civ3 if you're going to port anything.

Quicker games? Civ isn't civ unless you can sit there for 12 hours.

@ Neebs

Agreed!

Civ1/2/3 were all great games, but to be honest, I don't think such a format (or genre, for that matter) is made for handhelds. Perhaps DS is a good medium, but the small screens will be hard to play such a game on.

http://populent.gmail.com

So far all of this has been marketing jibberish. I have yet to get one detail anywhere of how the game will actually play. I hold Civ IV up as one of the best games ever made and have devoted countless hours to it, so if they screw this up (which making Sid Meier himself Lead Game Designer will hopefully and probably prevent), I am going to be royally pissed. I hope we get more info from E3.
BTW, @Ludwig Thank you so much for that last sentence, picturing that brightened up my day (in an odd, nerd sort of way).

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution coming to new-gen consoles and handhelds